The Loss of Our Pets

This past year we experienced the loss of 3 animals. It seems improbable even though it was very real and something very difficult to deal with. We had a total of 3 cats and 1 dog. Bandit, our dog was a beagle mix. He was 11 years old and developed what we later found out to be heart failure. He had a lot of fluid built up and could no longer breathe easily. We finally made the decision to humanely put him out of his misery and told the vet we would come in the morning. Bandit never made it to that vet appointment in the morning. At midnight his breathing was extremely labored and he was clearly in pain. We could no longer wait. On a snowy night, we traveled almost an hour and paid 3x the amount at an emergency facility and said our goodbye's to him. This was the first time we had ever put an animal down and we were not prepared for the grief that ensued. What made it worse was that he seemed to suddenly look better just before the injection. It is crazy how things go sometimes.

In the meantime, we had gotten a kitten that someone we knew had watched being born and cared for him and the mother until we could take him home. He was a beautiful Maine Coon cat with long hair. We named him Lorenzo. He was the sweetest animal who soon became the center of the household. He played consistently and loved even harder. When it came time for him to be neutered, he had a hard time with the anesthesia. When we brought him home, he would not eat at all. He quickly became dehydrated. I brought him back to the vet and they gave him a few sessions of IV fluids. After a couple of weeks, he was back to himself and we were so happy. Until at the time of one year of age, he was playing and running around in the morning and lay down and died immediately. We were horrified. We were told he probably had something wrong with this heart and that is why he had trouble with the neutering also.

At that point, we had an 11 year old black cat and a 5 year old ragdoll cat left. We were so upset and found it hard to believe this happened. A few short months later, our black cat could no longer jump up and over a few weeks time; we noticed her appetite was greatly diminished. We took her for blood work and they discovered a very high white blood cell count. With her other symptoms and the results of her blood, they told us we were probably dealing with some sort of cancer but treated her with antibiotics thinking if by chance it was just an infection, she would come around. The antibiotics did not work at all and she began to get much worse. She would not eat a thing and then stopped drinking. After a short while, she started throwing up bile. We had her checked again and by then her liver was shutting down. We made the decision to put her to sleep when we realized she was in misery.

This left us with our ragdoll kitty who is a love and who is decidedly lonely. This week we went and purchased a rescue kitty from an adoption center. He is adorable and is 4 months old. We had to keep the two cats apart because the kitten had a cold and ear mites. Finally, tomorrow we will be able to introduce the two and I pray that it is love at first sight. I really took a chance bringing home a sick cat, especially with what we went through, but this kitten stole our hearts. Tomorrow, "Sylvio" gets his free run of the house and meets his older brother. He is very lovable as he jumps up on us and puts his hands on our faces to kiss our chins as he rubs his head into our necks. It is as if he is thanking us for saving him. Strangely, this kitten has characteristics of the other two cats that passed. We are excited to see how they get along!